Most Florida Waterways Fail Water Quality Standards as Enforcement Lags

Florida’s anti-pollution efforts remain near historic lows at a time when the majority of the state’s waterways are failing to meet water quality standards, revealing an enforcement program “in crisis,” according to a new report. 

Yesterday, the environmental organizations Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and Waterkeepers Florida released an analysis of 37 years of pollution enforcement data from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) alongside contemporary water quality data. The report found that the number of state pollution enforcement actions has declined dramatically in recent years even as the state’s population continued to grow.

The Florida DEP recorded 755 enforcement actions in 2025, an increase from 699 the year before. Since Gov. Ron DeSantis assumed office in 2019, the DEP has averaged 654 cases each year. The report notes that this is approximately half the department’s average between 1996 and 2010, though it is higher than the average of 431 during the Rick Scott administration from 2011 to 2019. 

These below-average numbers of enforcement actions align with a 19 percent decline in Florida’s environmental agency staff—the largest decrease in number of any state—from 2010 to 2025, according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project. During the same period, the state’s population increased by approximately 5 million.

“The drop in enforcement likely reflects a genuine drop in capacity, as well as a declining political will,” said PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse. He said a smaller staff means fewer inspectors, permit reviewers and case investigators to tackle water quality issues. 

“The combination of development interests and the years of hostility toward environmental enforcement have taken its toll on Florida’s ability to address these problems,” he said.

The report authors say poor enforcement and lax policies are to blame for sub-standard water quality across much of the state. They point to the dredge and fill and domestic wastewater programs as examples of areas in which insufficient enforcement is negatively impacting waterways.

DeSantis’s office referred Inside Climate News to the DEP, which did not respond to requests for comment.

Florida’s 2026 Integrated Water Quality Assessment, a reporting requirement under the Clean Water Act, revealed that more than half of the state’s waterbodies failed to meet water quality standards; less than a third affirmatively met them. 

“The data are unambiguous: most of our waterways are not meeting the standards designed to protect public health and the environment. Our current water regulatory system is not working,” Jen Lomberk, vice-chair of Waterkeepers Florida, said in a press release. “Floridians are swimming, fishing, and boating in waters that the state’s own data show are impaired. That should alarm every resident and every elected official in this state.”

Using data from the DEP, the analysis from PEER and Waterkeepers Florida showed fecal bacteria and nutrient pollution are the most prevalent forms of pollution in Florida’s water.

Bacteria like E. coli and enterococci found in fecal matter can enter the water from failing septic systems, sewer overflows and livestock operations, among other sources, making swimming and fishing unsafe.

Nutrient pollution is the result of excess nitrogen and phosphorus entering the water, often due to fertilizer runoff from lawns, golf courses and agricultural fields, as well as wastewater discharge, septic systems or pet waste. It can cause harmful algal blooms, reduce water quality and stress or kill aquatic life by reducing the amount of oxygen in the water.

“There’s no question that more people equals more nutrients and more potential for pollution,” said Austin Fox, a professor in Florida Tech’s Department of Ocean Engineering and Sciences who was not involved in the report. He noted that water quality problems are not exclusive to Florida, and previous enforcement efforts and infrastructure investments in the state have led to meaningful improvements in water quality over the last several decades.

The report did note several areas of progress, including in manatee mortality and water quality for coastal areas and streams, but said infrastructure investments alone are not enough to clean up the state’s waters.

Instead, it called on state regulators to take more enforcement actions and implement sustainable development policies and greater transparency surrounding water quality issues. 

As an example, the report cites a 2024 bill, the Safe Waterways Act, which would have required health warnings about sub-standard water quality, the closing of affected waterways if needed and reports about contaminated waterways to the public and state officials. DeSantis vetoed the bill, which the report called “a powerful signal to local government that they can choose not to inform the public about dangerous water quality conditions” that in turn can “mean less pressure on state and local agencies to clean up waterways and take enforcement actions.”

The “elephant in the room,” Lomberk told Inside Climate News, is that Florida’s water quality issues are happening against the backdrop of changes to federal regulations following the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA, which narrowed the scope of the Clean Water Act. 

“It really falls more heavily on the state’s shoulders to be the protective regulatory agency for our water quality,” she said.